Selfsufficientish.com

When liquid is fermenting in a bucket/bin, before going into a demi-john with airlock, does it need to have a lid on or just something covering it? I am currently making banana wine which is in a large brewing bucket complete with lid and tight fitting lock but its whistling like its gonna explode! When is it that the wine can become infected and turn to vinegar - once the fermentation has finished or at anytime?

Also, has anyone made peach wine?

Some people cover the bucket with a teatowel or cheesecloth secured with elastic or string.
The yeast needs some oxygen during the initial stages of fermentation to get their number up. The trick at this stage is to prevent anything from falling in.
Once there is sufficient yeast cells present, it's time to cut off the oxygen supply so that the yeast begins to produce all that lovely alcohol ...

I genenerally put a tea towel over the bucket or put the lid on it but not sealed. I had a party a while ago and my mate thought that the fermination bin with a tea towel on it looked comfortable and ended up almost ruining the whole process. alchol and making it don't always mix.

The vinegar fly can get in at any time, so keep covered at all times. When I acquire a new-to-me (never bought a new one) fermenting bin, I discard the snap on plastic lid and use a folded tea towel and very large rubber band. I think it's better if the wine is allowed to "breathe" a bit, but no idea of the technical or scientific reasons. The plastic lids get taken down to the recycling centre for someone else to have.

I've amde tinned peach wine, which was fairly successful; not amde from fresh, but would think you would need to add pectic enzyme to prevent haze.

I've got a stone of damsons in the freezer waiting to be made into damson wine but our house is full of flipping fruit flies so I'm waiting for a cold snap to kill 'em all off before I try any wine making or I'll end up with 5 gallons of vinegar.